Eastern Bypass extension, passenger rail connection making progress

When it comes to transportation in central Illinois, planners have an expression: “The road to progress begins with a road.” Widen that to include a train, and you capture two of the biggest ongoing transportation efforts in the region, with the Eastern Bypass extension — extending Il...

When it comes to transportation in central Illinois, planners have an expression: “The road to progress begins with a road.”

Widen that to include a train, and you capture two of the biggest ongoing transportation efforts in the region, with the Eastern Bypass extension — extending Illinois Route 6 across the Illinois River and linking it back to Interstate 74 — and a passenger rail connection between Peoria and Bloomington-Normal.

Both have long been subjects of discussion in the Tri-County Area, and both subjects have seen incremental movement in the last year.

The objective is simple, says Terry Kohlbuss, the executive director of the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission.

“We’re trying to build a transportation system that is flexible and meets a lot of different needs.”

But roads aren’t built and rail lines aren’t laid within just a day or a year.

“These things always get done one step at a time,” Kohlbuss says, noting that each project has “steps and sub-steps and sub-sub-steps.”

Still, the signs are positive lately, with a much more organized effort — including the resurrection of the Eastern Bypass Coalition — and a clarion-clear explanation for the benefits that could come with completion the so-called ring road.

“Think about that space between Morton and Washington and Germantown Hills and Metamora and go down the hill to where Mossville is. This is the next growth area,” says Mike Hinrichsen, who heads the Eastern Bypass Coalition.

The Woodford County Board member speaks of the benefits for transportation in general — “There are very few people who don’t agree on the need for another bridge for the area,” he says — as well as the advantages in moving goods around the region.

It’s linked, Hinrichsen said, to the continuing economic development efforts around the area under the Focus Forward CI banner, and the effort to induce more companies to locate here because of the ease of moving goods. Completing the ring road eliminates one barrier.

“Name me a metropolitan area our size — and with our economic power — that doesn’t have a ring road,” he says.

With a planner’s view, Kohlbuss tells the same tale.

“There’s not good north-south flow on the east side of the river,” he says. “There is not good connectivity with some of the growth areas.”

Current efforts on the road are funded through Fiscal Year 2014, but there are some crucial steps to take. First on that list is narrowing down the list of potential corridors from four. The goal is to whittle it down by at least one over the coming year, and eventually settle on one. Then comes alignment and design of the road before construction can even begin.

“We’ve got our eye on the next couple steps,” Kohlbuss says.

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Indeed, “by mid-year 2014 ... we need to have a clear idea where we’re going and then have the funding continue,” Hinrichsen says. “We are absolutely convinced that to not have the funding would be disastrous.”

Meanwhile, the passenger rail effort has seen some measure of support already this year, with area planners, politicians and government staffers traveling to Washington, D.C., to make their case for support to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and some of his top deputies in agencies that oversee rail programs.

The pitch is similar: With growing infrastructure, Peoria needs to have a piece of the action in order to remain a player economically.

“If, in fact, the nation is going to build a passenger rail network, the Peoria area cannot afford to not be linked into that system,” Kohlbuss says. “Prosperity follows trade routes, and that’s mainly transportation corridors.”

Essentially what’s now being pitched is a multi-stop commuter rail line running from Peoria’s airport to Bloomington’s, with stops in each city’s downtown area as well as in the bedroom communities between the cities.

“There are an awful lot of people in Bloomington-Normal who come to work at (Caterpillar Inc.) or at the hospitals,” Kohlbuss says. “We know a lot of people (from Peoria) have to go to Bloomington-Normal” to work at State Farm, go to Illinois State University, or elsewhere.

Moreover, a rail line would still serve as a link into the national rail system because of the Amtrak corridor running through Bloomington-Normal.

“It provides an opportunity for our citizens to have a broader access to the region as a whole,” Tri-County transportation planner Kyle Smith said.

Right now, planners hope that the feds will grant the passenger rail idea “justified project status,” effectively putting it in the pipeline over the next year for more planning and a gradual effort to settle on a route.

Though there’s been some pushback and some doubt expressed by folks in the area, the time for laying the plans and attracting support needs to be now, Smith says.